The magic of the personal blog has always been the opportunity to create a little outpost on the web to call your own. A playground to explore ideas and thoughts. Amidst emerging social media platforms, and the ever-wearying “next big thing”, the personal blog remains a place to stake a…

Last week while eating lunch and gazing out the window at the -30° cold, we noticed a small bird in the cedar by our deck. A pine siskin or similar sparrow, its gray, brown, and yellow-hinted feathers puffed out to capture each bit of warmth. Our kids jumped to the…

Last weekend my wife and I went out for dinner. As we finished our meal, we were coincidentally discussing how we wanted to improve our family’s diet, make better meals, get our kids to enjoy vegetables, all that. “The time [to make these changes] is now”, my wife stated. “After…

Sad today to hear of the passing of the great poet Mary Oliver. I first heard of Mary Oliver several years ago via the above quote, which lead me to discover her poetry, and helped teach me a way of seeing the natural world. Her quiet spirit and attention to…

At 4:29pm I stepped outside on my way home from work, watching as the sun set behind the gray winter sky. The overcast sky muted the moment in a way that made the daylight’s recession almost imperceptible. The night had silently begun, and with it, just as unassumingly, had our…

In the Navajo tradition, kids grow up learning about running as a part of their culture. They run east in the morning to meet the sun, and to meet the Creator. For the Navajo, running isn’t simply a way to stay physically fit, it’s a spiritual practice. Running is a…

Over the past year my curiosity has led me down two distinct but converging paths. One is running. The other is the wilderness. The two paths converge at this curious sub-culture within the sport of running: trail running. In my curiosity, I’ve fed on a steady diet of books and…

Friday, December 21 is the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year in the northern hemisphere. In southern Manitoba that means 16 hours of darkness, from sunset to sunrise on the 22nd. Our dear friend Ashleigh was recently diagnosed with Stage IV cancer, bringing a season of darkness to…

When snow begins to coat the ground, as it’s been doing this week in our neighbourhood, every noise is muffled, creating a new world of silence that is breath-taking in its unexpected minimalism. Every sound that you do hear feels intentional. Somehow the birds’ songs have become clearer and more…

Kristine McDivitt Tompkins (along with her late husband, Doug Tompkins) worked to establish conservation areas stretching millions of acres across Patagonia on the southern tip of South America. I was inspired by an interview in the documentary 180° South, where McDivitt Tompkins (possibly quoting Gary Snyder?) stated, “You can’t protect…